


And Everything in its Place

by tucuxi



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-24
Updated: 2011-03-24
Packaged: 2017-10-17 06:43:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/174012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tucuxi/pseuds/tucuxi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Iruka spent enough time in the mission room that he'd more or less become part of the background, and most people just ignored him.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	And Everything in its Place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anenko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anenko/gifts).



"What is this?"

Iruka looked around, though he knew that the question wasn't directed at him: it pretty much never was. Iruka spent enough time in the mission room that he'd more or less become part of the background, and most people just ignored him. It wasn't that he was shirking his training: it was just that any time Iruka had reading to do, he brought it there, preferring the occasional interruptions to the silence of his apartment.

"Wh-what? I mean, what is it, Hatake Kakashi-san?"

Hayase sounded a bit nervous, and Iruka pulled his knees up onto the seat next to him, propping his clip-board such that his hitae-ate, tied on the top of it, reflected the scene at the desk behind him. The Copy Nin was standing by the desk with a team of what looked like chuunin to one side, though Iruka supposed they could be tokujo: the vests didn't differentiate. The scroll in Kakashi's hand had a green seal, and he was holding it as if it were an earthworm, or a pile of dirt - something he definitely had no interest in keeping a grasp on.

"This is a C-rank mission" Kakashi said, tone making it very clear that he was stating the obvious. The green seal meant that, really, he was.

"Oh, um," Hayase reached out for it, and twirled it nervously in his fingers. "But, it's the only one left -" The desk in front of him was clear, though Iruka knew that when he'd come in a few hours ago it had been lined with a handful of scrolls.

"Then another team got the wrong mission."

No matter how he polished it, a hitae-ate would never be a perfect mirror, but Iruka could see the blood drain from Hayase's face. Hayase had only made chuunin at the last exams, and while he'd been a bit obnoxious about it the first couple of times he'd run into Iruka, it was hard not to feel a little bit sorry for him. Or, for Iruka, at least -- Hatake Kakashi didn't seem to have any pity in him at all.

"Well," Hayase said, "I'll just go through the lists and see who..."

Iruka thought back: a number of teams had complained about their assignments, so they couldn't have had a swap - Hayase would have caught it then. And Hayase was new enough that he still insisted everyone open their scrolls and read them in front of the desk, which was a benefit in this case, because it meant everyone had at least looked at their missions, and held the scrolls out in the open for a little longer than usual, making it easier to figure out what rank their mission was while they were in the room. Iruka had taken to keeping track of what ranks of missions went out to whom: it was a better lesson on distribution of resources than some of the texts he was reading, if he kept track of who was and wasn't in the village at any given time. Hayase started to rustle papers around on the desk, but Kakashi cut him off.

"That will take too long."

Iruka risked standing up, and clearing his throat. Hayase startled.

"What rank mission was Gai-sensei's team assigned?" he asked, facing Hayase, nodding politely at the other four.

"What?" Hayase asked, "he's got a genin team! He had a D-rank!" Iruka frowned.

"But he's had them for almost a year. Wouldn't they get C-ranks sometimes?" Hayase looked at the list and trailed a finger down it.

"Yeah, okay," he granted. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well," Iruka said, glancing sidelong at the other four: Hatake Kakashi's expression was completely blank over his habitual mask.

"Well, Gai-sensei seemed a little startled when he got their mission," Iruka explained. "I know it's hard to tell. But," he paused, trying to figure out how to put this and not sound crazy, "he sort of. He sparkled more than usual? And his team looked kind of scared at his enthusiasm."

Hayase opened his mouth only to be cut off.

"That idiot," Kakashi said, and then he bit his thumb, pulled a scroll and slammed his hand into the floor, all in one swift movement. Iruka outright stared: he'd never seen a summoning done so smoothly before, or so close. A large dog - Iruka wasn't sure what breed - appeared, and Kakashi handed it the scroll.

"Go find Guy," he said, "give this to him and get the mission scroll he has. Get to him before he and his team engage with anyone." The dog nodded, and loped off at surprising speed. Kakashi walked around the desk behind Hayase and picked up an empty scroll. Then he walked back out, sat across the table from Iruka and started writing out another summoning scroll right there, the characters falling off the brush with an eerie speed. His team relaxed a bit, one sitting down, the other two standing and starting a soft conversation. Hayase stared at them all for a moment before going through all his papers, trying to figure out which scroll had gone astray, and how.

It wasn't long before the dog returned, a scroll with a blue seal tucked under its collar.

"They were still in town, boss" it said, and sat at his feet. Iruka was surprised to see Sharingan Kakashi smile, and ruffle the dog's ears when he thanked it. Then he stood, dropped the scroll in front of Hayase, who frowned and corrected the paperwork as fast as he could, apologizing the whole time.

The four of them turned to walk away, and Iruka felt indignation crawling up his spine when Kakashi turned and looked straight at him.

"Does the Sandaime know you're keeping track of missions like that?" he asked.

"No one's told me not to," Iruka replied. It was a transparent "no," but it had never really occurred to him that he'd have to ask permission just to keep his eyes open, so long as he didn't write anything down or talk about it.

"Huh." Kakashi almost smiled, and then the door closed behind him. Iruka stared after him for a few minutes, and then turned back to his reading. If he could figure out how combined chakra-nature jutsu worked, then maybe the more unusual kekkei genkai would start to make sense, too.


End file.
